# Constantine — The Decameron character guide

> Constantine in The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.

**Role:** major

**First appearance:** 0044-the-fifth-story

## Snapshot

A young lover whose devotion to a disdainful woman drives him to the edge of ruin before a strange vision in the pines changes everything.

## Who they are

Constantine is a wealthy young man of Ravenna whose obsessive pursuit of an unyielding lady exhausts both his fortune and his friends' patience. Sent away to forget her, he camps near Chiassi and wanders into a pinewood, where a terrifying apparition of hunted lovers confronts him with the cost of cruelty in love. His story matters because it turns private heartbreak into a moral spectacle, teaching the Decameron's listeners that disdain itself can be punished.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_decameron_se/characters/constantine
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_decameron_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_decameron_se/characters